Theory of Knowledge

Disclaimer: This is a private blog. The thoughts are my own and for my own reading and amusement. I may chose to write in 3rd person format but doesn't mean it is addressed to others. Visitors to my blog can read what they wish but the buck stops there. If I write something stupid, its for me alone. My stupidity! You can't have it :)

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Did Dinosaurs really exist?

A few days back I read an article about finding the fossils of a giant camel. The camel's bones were found in Syria and are circa 100,000 years old. This has naturally got the minds of the archaeaologists ignited and are ecstatic about the find. Funnily this has been the only such find anywhere in the planet and even in this vicinty, where this fossil has been found, there is only one camel.

So why the hullabaloo? It's only one camel and not like an entire colony of camel fossils. Suppose 100,000 years from now, next species to rule this planet find the fossils of a 9 foot human being - does it mean that there were colonies of 9 feet human beings? We do have cases of certain human beings because of either genetic mutation or hormonal imbalance have grown to extra ordinary heights. This camel that has been found could have been one among the colony of camels that existed in those days.

What striked me as uncommon was that this was probably the first desert mammal that was found that was giant sized in nature. Interestingly no one has highlighted that. Our past fossils have always been either reptiles or sea animals or ones that lived relatively close to foliage. Which brings me to think of another probable theory.

Personally I don't think huge 20 ton dinosaurs ever existed. Hold it, before you knock me out with a two ton dinosaur knee-cap, allow me to explain. My train of thought leads me to believe that even after the natural sized reptiles died (by this I mean the size of current day crocodiles etc...) and were buried under the sediments of rivers or under the rich lava soil, the skeletons of these dead animals continued to grow. As a matter of fact they could be still growing but at a pace of 1 inch every million years. Therefore over the last 200 million years or so, they have grown about 200 inches, in their natural shape and direction, making our archaeologists believe that huge dinosaurs existed in the jurassic period.

Why did these bones continue to grow? Well nails and hair continue to grow after we die!! And we know that because we can see them grow at the same pace as it used to grow when the human being was living. Likewise bones could continue to grow by drawing their energy and resources from the rich soil that they get buried under. Unlikely? Well then why is it that some bones decay and vanish whilst some others continue to exist even after millions of years? Must be the soil content. I don't think the dinosaurs mummified their dead relatives before giving them a decent burial.

I am quite certain that if someone were to do a study of the soil in places where the fossils are found, he / she would find a starking similarity in the content of the soil. In addition if that scientist could use modern day technology to find out if bones continue to grow after death (under fossilised conditions), then they will have an alternative dinosaur theory.

Like Mycroft (Sherlock Holmes' brother), I have neither the energy nor the inclination to go prove my train of thoughts. I am content watching Cartoon Network and churning out grand theories. ;-)